There’s this persistent belief that everything your teacher told you must have been true, even though, as it turns out, teachers are only (very hardworking) humans and can make mistakes just like the rest of us. Especially when the syllabus contains a factual error.

I spent all 13 years of my education in Catholic schools, so I know for sure that half of what I was taught wasn’t exactly based on rock solid certainty, but for others, it might come as a surprise that some of the most common ‘facts’ we believe to be set in stone are not actually facts at all.

Here is the truth about some of those myths you might have heard around the traps or have been taught in school … though thankfully, from all reports, schools these days are much more on the ball.

The common depiction of the horned viking hat actually has little basis in history. It’s thought that the myth originated from early artworks that romanticised the vikings as wearing horned or winged headgear, according to Today I Found Out:

“In these works, the Vikings were often depicted as violent adventurers who wore winged or horned helmets. It is thought that early romantic artists and writers depicting them as such were going off of ancient Greek and Roman texts, which describe certain Northern European groups’ practice of wearing various headgear, including the heads (and sometimes full bodies) of animals. The ancient Greeks and Roman literature on this was well before the Viking’s time and wasn’t specifically referring to any group that would necessarily eventually become the Vikings.”

In actual fact, archeological evidence suggests vikings wore leather headgear , or nothing at all. Sadly, they would have looked more like rugby players than demon warriors.

It’s a commonly held (and taught) belief that there is no gravity in space – after all, we call it zero gravity, so the confusion is understandable. In fact, there is a lot of gravity in space, which is what causes the moon to orbit the earth, and the earth to orbit the sun. Even a human, while not restricted by the same laws of gravity as on earth, would have a small gravitational pull in space.

You were probably taught at some point in your school career that everything on earth is made up of three states of matter – solid, liquid or gas. In fact, there are at least six – plasma, Bose-Einstein condensates and neutron-degenerate matter. It’s theorised that other states of matter are possible, but this has yet to be proven.

Science is all too often taught in terms of absolute truths. As in ‘It’s SCIENCE, so it’s true.’

In fact, science is the process by which we discover things – the method of analysing a situation and applying critical thinking in order to form theories and prove or disprove them. Too many of us were taught the facts in science class, without ever really being taught the proper methods with which they were discovered. Scientific theories are constantly being disproven or expanded upon, which actually strengthens science (the process and method) but renders ‘facts’ irrelevant. The most important thing children can learn in science class is how to form and test theories, not how to memorise facts.

This might not be taught in school so much as it is a myth perpetrated among high school students – that if you shave any area of hair, it will return thicker.

I remember begging my mum to let me shave my legs in Year Seven, and being met with the stern warning that if I did, they’d grow back twice as thick and twice as dark and I’d be left having to do it daily. Of course I defied her and dry-shaved my poor little legs the very next day, making sure I kept them covered when I was in her presence for the next little while. The fact is, however, that shaved hair doesn’t grow back any faster or thicker than hair removed in any other way. Here’s a study that debunked this myth in the ’70s … so why it persists is anyone’s guess.

This one shocked me, I have to say. If you were taught that diamonds form from coal over time, you’re in the majority, but the fact is that this is a myth.

“According to empirical evidence from evolutionists, geologists, etc., diamonds were formed about 1–3 billion years ago, which is earlier than any known record of even the Earth’s first land plants let alone coal.” reports Science Based Life. “Coal, known as a fossil fuel, is formed from the long dead remains of vegetation, animals, and basically any organic material. The formation of coal takes millions of years and can be traced back to 300 to 400 million years ago, but certainly not a billion years (or more).”

So what does form diamonds then, you ask? Well, according to Geology.com:

“Geologists believe that the diamonds in all of Earth’s commercial diamond deposits were formed in the mantle and delivered to the surface by deep-source volcanic eruptions. These eruptions produce the kimberlite and lamproite pipes that are sought after by diamond prospectors. Diamonds weathered and eroded from these eruptive deposits are now contained in the sedimentary (placer) deposits of streams and coastlines.”

No, I’m not talking about the ability to see dead people – rather the fact that there are far more than the five senses of sight, touch, hearing, taste and smell.

Not only do scientists argue that sight technically comprises two senses in itself due to the two distinct receptors (colour and brightness), and that taste is really more like five senses in one, they’ve also identified several other senses humans possess.

Pressure, itch, thermoception (the ability to sense heat and cold), proprioception (the ability to tell where certain body parts are in relation to other body parts), tension sensors, nociception (the ability to sense pain, once thought to be an overload of touch, but since proven to be its own unique sense), equilibrioception (balance) thirst and hunger. There are several more senses that are theorised, including a sense of time, though this is debated as no singular mechanism in the body has been found that senses time.

What facts were you taught in school that you now realise were not so factual after all?